Chapter 3

Clara Holt POV:

Lying in the sterile silence of the hospital room, I finally understood. To the boy I loved, I wasn't a person anymore. I was a problem to be solved. An obligation. A weight tied to his ankle while he tried to run toward his "destiny."

I thought of all the years, all the promises. Him whispering "You're it for me, Clara" against my hair after we won the state debate championship. Him carving our initials into the old oak tree behind the school, the wood still fresh and bleeding sap. "Forever," he' d said, sealing it with a kiss.

It was all a lie. Or worse, it was a truth that had simply expired.

The shouting outside my door finally died down. The hallway fell silent. A few minutes later, the door creaked open. Joshua stood there, silhouetted against the dim light. His face was pale, and there was a dark bruise forming on his jaw where, presumably, his future self had hit him back.

"Clara," he whispered, his voice thick with a guilt that felt cheap and performative.

He moved toward the bed, reaching out to touch my arm. I flinched, pulling away before his fingers could make contact. The recoil was instinctive, a reflex from a body that had already learned he was no longer a source of comfort.

His hand dropped. "I'm so sorry," he said, his voice cracking. "I'll make it up to you. I swear. After you're better, we'll go to Yale. Everything will be exactly like we planned."

His words were meant to be reassuring, but they landed like stones in the pit of my stomach. He was talking about a future that no longer existed, a plan that had been torn to shreds by a ghost with his own face. I felt a hysterical laugh bubble in my chest, but I choked it down. What was the point?

He didn't love me. He loved the idea of us, the neat and tidy plan we'd made. And now that the plan was messy, he was just trying to clean it up.

I said nothing. I just stared at the blank wall opposite my bed, my heart a hollow space inside my chest.

He took my silence as an opening. For the next two days, he played the part of the devoted boyfriend. He brought me magazines I didn't read and hospital food I couldn't stomach. He sat by my bedside for hours, mostly in silence, his phone buzzing incessantly with texts I knew were from Amelia.

Future Joshua was a constant, toxic presence. He would appear in the corner of the room, a shimmer in the air only Joshua could see, his whispers a poison dripping into my boyfriend's ear.

"Amelia is scared," he'd say, his voice a low hum. "She's alone in that big, empty house. Her mother is working a double shift. She needs you."

"I'm with Clara," Joshua would hiss back, his knuckles white as he gripped the arm of his chair.

"And what good are you doing here?" Future Joshua would counter smoothly. "She's sleeping. Amelia is having a panic attack. She thinks the aftershocks are coming back."

I would pretend to be asleep, my body rigid under the thin blanket, listening to the battle for Joshua's soul. A battle I was not winning.

He started making excuses. He had to "check on his parents." He had to "run an errand." He' d return hours later, smelling faintly of a cheap floral perfume I knew wasn't mine. He thought I didn't notice. Or maybe he just didn't care.

Then came the final betrayal. He' d been gone all afternoon. He' d promised to be back to help me with my first painful attempt at walking with crutches. He never showed.

Instead, a text message arrived. It wasn't from him. It was from the same unknown number as before. Another video.

This time, it was of Joshua at Amelia's rundown little house. He was in her kitchen, patiently explaining a financial aid form to her and her mother, Dottie. Dottie, a woman with tired eyes and a grasping smile, was fawning over him.

"You're a lifesaver, Joshua," Dottie said, patting his arm. "With all the medical bills from Amelia's last... incident... I don't know what we'd do."

Then, a new message popped up below the video. A text. From Future Joshua.

He paid for her mother' s hospital bills. All of them. He said it was the least he could do for his future mother-in-law.

The words blurred through the tears welling in my eyes. The pain was so sharp, so specific, it felt like my ribs were cracking. All our shared secrets, our private language, our history-it was all being repurposed for her. I was the rough draft he was now editing into a final, perfect version starring Amelia Mcclain.

The video wasn't over.

Amelia looked up at Joshua, her eyes shining with adoration. "Clara is so lucky to have you," she said, her voice laced with a cloying, false innocence. "You're so good to her."

Joshua's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Clara is strong," he said, his voice distant. "She's independent. She doesn't need me the way..." He trailed off, but the implication hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.

She doesn' t need me.

The words echoed in the silent hospital room. All those years I' d prided myself on being his partner, his equal. It had never occurred to me that my strength was a liability. He didn't want an equal. He wanted a project. A damsel in distress.

And I, with my Ivy League acceptance and my straight-A average, was not it.

I finally understood the cruel irony. He wasn't choosing Amelia over me because she was better. He was choosing her because she was weaker. She made him feel like a hero. And I, who had only ever wanted to be his partner, just made him feel like a boy.

The next day, when I was discharged, he was there. He looked tired, the bruise on his jaw now a sickly yellow. "I'm sorry about yesterday," he mumbled, not meeting my eyes. "Amelia had another... emergency."

He tried to hand me a credit card. "For any expenses," he said. "Whatever you need."

I stared at the platinum card, a cheap substitute for the loyalty and love he' d already given to someone else.

Just then, two figures appeared at the end of the hall. Amelia, looking fragile and wan, supported by the solid, unyielding frame of Future Joshua.

"We thought we'd all go out for a meal to celebrate you getting out," Future Joshua announced, his smile a cold, sharp thing.

Joshua hesitated, his gaze flicking between me and them. It was a test. And like all the others, he failed it. "Yeah," he said, forcing a smile. "That's a great idea."

At the restaurant, a place filled with our memories, he tried. He really did. He pulled out my chair. He ordered my favorite appetizer without asking. For a moment, it was almost like it used to be.

"I don't like fried calamari," Amelia said softly from across the table, a small, apologetic smile on her face.

Future Joshua immediately bristled. "Joshua, you know she prefers the shrimp cocktail. And she can't have anything with garlic. It gives her migraines."

Joshua looked flustered. "Right. Sorry, I forgot."

My heart clenched. He had never forgotten anything about me.

Future Joshua then produced a small, leather-bound notebook from his pocket and slid it across the table to his younger self. "Here," he said, his voice laced with smug superiority. "I made you a list. Everything she likes, everything she's allergic to, her favorite movies, the books she reads... a little cheat sheet. So you don't make the same mistakes I did at the beginning."

Amelia gasped, covering her mouth. "You did all that? For me?"

"Of course," Future Joshua said, his cold eyes softening as he looked at her. "I'd do anything for you."

Joshua just stared at the notebook, his hand frozen above it. And I stared at him.

I remembered making him a list just like that, years ago. It was a joke between us, written on a crumpled napkin, full of silly things like "hates pickles" and "loves the smell of old books." He' d kept it in his wallet until it fell apart. He said he didn' t need it anymore, because he had it all memorized. He had me memorized.

Joshua finally picked up the notebook, his fingers tracing the embossed leather. It was a tangible symbol of my replacement. All the years I had spent building a life with him, memorizing the contours of his heart, and he was being handed a manual to learn someone new.

Future Joshua broke the silence. "Don't worry, present me," he said, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. "You'll learn it all. You'll spend years memorizing every detail of her, just like I did. You' ll forget all about... this." He waved a hand in my direction.

Joshua flinched, slamming the notebook shut. "That's not true! I love Clara."

But his eyes were on the notebook.